We have had our chickens for almost two years now, and I haven't written about them as much as I would like to have. I shared with you when they were chicks, the coop we built, when I considered building another coop, and a glimpse of the hens in the winter. I never really explained how much we like them as pets though.
I had no idea that chickens could make great pets. We began raising chickens simply for their egg production. Since we enjoy tending garden plants and regularly harvesting their vegetables, a logical next step seemed to be tending chickens and regularly harvest their eggs. Chickens and vegetable gardens really do go well together.So we researched chickens, built a chicken coop, purchased day old chicks and got started. We didn’t expect the whole family to fall in love with our young hens. What we thought would be farm animals have become pets. One hen, a Buff Orphington named Lucy, is almost a member of the family now.
Lucy was named by my 12 year old daughter within the first few minutes of having her. She was still in the box with 21 other chicks when my daughter picked her up, named her, and declared Lucy to be her favorite. We even took a picture of that crowning moment.
I suppose because of that early attention, Lucy bonded with us even more than the others. We raised the chicks in a circular brooding tray in our garage. We could easily reach in to tend to them and interact with them. Every day we would reach our hand down into the brooder and watch Lucy run over and jump into our hand. The other chicks began following her, and she has since emerged as the clear captain of the coop! In those early days of raising the chicks, our daughters spent many hours holding and petting them all, but especially Lucy.
When the chicks grew into pullets and it was time to move them outside, we decided to keep only five hens. The girls chose to keep the five friendliest, Lucy and four others (later named Ethel, Bonnie, Hattie, and Nellie). They gave the rest of the pullets to their grandpa to sell or keep on his farm. Our pet chickens now live in their palatial estate in our backyard. For safety, they are not allowed to roam free, but they have a large pen with a roof, a comfortable coop complete with roosts and nesting boxes, and an enclosed grazing pen for plenty of grass and insects.
Of course their favorite thing to eat is anything we give them out of our hand. They practically beg like a dog for pieces of tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers, strawberries and their absolute favorite – grapes! The chicken coop is visible from our back deck. The chickens watch the house, and as soon as anyone in our family comes out the back door, Lucy and the others run to the side to greet us like this:
We often go in the coop to give them treats or just to hold them and pet them. Our chickens consistently give us three or four eggs a day like I had hoped they would. What’s even better is the unexpected love and joy they give us as well. Who knew that chickens could make such great pets? Obviously Lucy did!
If more people know how great chickens are, I bet they would raise a few of their own, even in small backyards. Do you tend chickens? Do you enjoy them like we do? I’d love to hear about it.
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